


Ghosts

by ourfreewill



Series: 9-1-1 Lone Star Season Two [3]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s02e02 2100, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29140674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ourfreewill/pseuds/ourfreewill
Summary: Dragging his eyes from the floor to Carlos, who is waiting for him on the stairs. His hand extends towards TK, with a warm and tender expression. TK reaches the stairs, slumping down with careless force against his chest, seeking the comfort of closeness. The solace of Carlos' arms wrapped around his waist grounds him and pulls him back to earth. TK’s face is pressed against the other man’s bicep, and he feels a kiss to the back of his head. The affection begins to warm through the frozen and icy veins he left the scene with.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand
Series: 9-1-1 Lone Star Season Two [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2156265
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> I'm always late, idk how people can write so quick

The rule is what goes up, must come down. How could everything be so good then turn so bad? Not long ago they had been celebrating, clapping – dare he say it – happy, now they are left with the life that cruel and capricious fate has chosen for them. Carrying a devastating breeze to their firehouse of cards. The joy they had experienced now lies crumbled before them.

The station is a ghost town. Distant footfalls of the other crew make up the background. They mill about, their footsteps feeling miles from TK's ears as they prepare for the next call. TK’s perception of present dwindles as he gazes out across the room. He’s sitting at the table looking back on their happier ghosts before they had seen what destiny was yet to accost them with.

Ghosts hover all over, but the living haunts him as well. The team's faces contain newfound suffering. The grief they have been bestowed with is tangible in the room, pain and sorrow blanketing them in a suffocating embrace. It lies around the room casting shadows under their eyes and amongst their hearts, making them ache. Judd trying to remain strong, Mateo trying to comprehend everything thrown at him, and Nancy saying what they’re all feeling. He can feel the guilt and sadness radiating off her. It seems impossible at this moment to see how any of them will recover from this, but he especially worries for her.

TK had frozen as he had heard what happened. He didn’t know who it was right then, but his dad’s voice on the radio was enough to make him stop in his tracks - his breathing halted. 

At first, he couldn’t admit it to himself. He looked on, convincing himself that it was a mirage or a trick - it was not real. It could not be real. His brain stopped processing the information in front of him. No one else moved either, they merely stared out. The cold hard brutal truth enveloped them all, like an icy wave in the Arctic Sea. 

Sitting at the table TK feels crushed under the weight of the cards, not knowing what to say or do with himself. He finds it difficult to put on the brave face and pretend that it isn’t corroding him. He acts like he knows how to cope with the events of the day. 

He’s holding it together. What he has to do is  _ keep _ holding it together. 

Marjan stands behind him, hand on his shoulder, he likes the grounding feeling it gives him, but when she moves, he starts to drift away again. 

_ “I wonder if they notified his family yet.” _

_ “It feels weird to just leave.” _

Nothing about the situation feels right, but to leave felt like abandonment. 

He arrives at Carlos’ home with a look of defeat registering on his body. A painfully heavy burden pulling his muscles into a grimace, the heaviness hunches his shoulders casting himself inwards, and his head finds it hard to look up from the floor. His thoughts are begging him to give in to old impulses, his body wants to call it a night. Ultimately, he doesn’t know what to do. 

Dragging his eyes from the floor to Carlos, who is waiting for him on the stairs. His hand extends towards TK, with a warm and tender expression. TK reaches the stairs, slumping down with careless force against his chest, seeking the comfort of closeness. The solace of Carlos' arms wrapped around his waist grounds him and pulls him back to earth. TK’s face is pressed against the other man’s bicep, and he feels a kiss to the back of his head. The affection begins to warm through the frozen and icy veins he left the scene with.

Time escapes them, and they sit there with legs extending down the stairs. They move when he fully returns back to his body, warmth returning to him and he’s fully aware of the toll the day had brought. He’s sore, aching, and exhausted and desperately wants to lie in bed. Sleep will be another challenge that he’s sure to tackle when he is dragged into it later that night. 

TK falls asleep with safe arms embracing him. His own are wound tight around Carlos’ waist as if the ghosts were to drag him through the floor and steal him away amid sleep. TK’s ear is close enough to his boyfriend’s chest to hear his heartbeat, and it soothes him enough to keep him in the present as he tells unwanted thoughts and memories to stay quiet and to leave him alone for even a few hours.

His night is filled with restless slumber, his legs shuffle, and he twists about, but never relinquishes his hold on Carlos. He’ll wake up with his shoulders feeling even sorer, but the security is keeping him sane, and he clings to that for everything it’s worth.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah like, this episode... I have a few grief issues and it randomly made me feel a lot of things... I think it's the lockdown just giving me too much thinking time. 
> 
> I squeezed like three different ideas into this one because i didn't have time or energy to write three separate stories, but yeah I'm happy-ish with it
> 
> [tumblr](https://ourfreewillfanfic.tumblr.com/)


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